National Arbitration Forum Holds Second Annual Series of New Jersey No-Fault Settlement Weeks

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., — http://www.arbitration-forum.com — The National Arbitration Forum will hold its second annual New Jersey No-Fault Settlement Weeks October 24-28 and December 12-16, 2005 for parties with legal disputes filed under the New Jersey No-Fault PIP Insurance Arbitration Program.

The National Arbitration Forum will encourage parties and their attorneys during these weeks, to identify cases involving medical reimbursements for injuries suffered in automobile accidents that have realistic settlement potential, and to be proactive and open settlement communications in an effort to resolve the matters. Parties and their attorneys in identified cases will not be required to travel to Dispute Resolution Professional (DRP) offices for hearings during the Settlement Weeks. DRPs will be available at no cost to facilitate voluntary settlement negotiations between parties, if the parties request intervention to assist in resolving the dispute.

Curtis Brown, general counsel for the National Arbitration Forum said, “Our on-going Settlement Week initiatives provide parties the opportunity to save time and money by resolving their disputes more quickly and provide us with valuable feedback for designing future settlement initiatives.”

The National Arbitration Forum launched the Settlement Week initiative in 2004 to assist parties in producing earlier and less-costly dispositions, to expedite scheduling of unresolved matters and to, ultimately, reduce the number of pending cases, which benefits all parties involved. During the inaugural initiative, parties reported:

• a 40 percent increase in settlements;
• that a primary benefit was time management of their settlement activities; and
• that they were able to focus on identifying potentially resolvable claims and communicate settlement positions to adverse parties.

To participate in the New Jersey No-Fault Settlement Weeks, parties simply need to identify those cases that have potential for settlement and contact the adverse party. If the services of a DRP are required to ultimately settle the matter, parties need to supply a list of cases to e-mail protected from spam bots one week prior to each Settlement Week. The National Arbitration Forum will select a DRP and advise all parties of the mediation schedule.

About the National Arbitration Forum
The National Arbitration Forum is one of the world’s leading providers of alternative dispute resolution solutions, including arbitration and mediation. Representing a distinguished panel of over 1,500 attorneys and retired judges who know and apply the law objectively according to their respective jurisdictions, the National Arbitration Forum provides businesses and consumers alike with fair, reasonable, and impartial access to justice. Founded in 1986, the National Arbitration Forum administers more than 50,000 cases annually. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the National Arbitration Forum also has offices located in New Jersey and Los Angeles. Additional information is available at the National Arbitration Forum’s Web site at http://www.arbitration-forum.com

About the New Jersey No-Fault PIP Insurance Arbitration Program
The National Arbitration Forum administers arbitrations for No-Fault Insurance Personal Injury Protection (PIP) disputes under New Jersey's Automobile Insurance Cost Reduction Act of 1998 (AICRA). AICRA requires that all automobile insurers provide any party with a dispute concerning personal injury protection benefits the option of submitting the dispute to binding arbitration. The National Arbitration Forum has been the appointed administrator for the New Jersey No-Fault Insurance PIP Arbitration Program since January 2004, when the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance awarded National Arbitration Forum the contract. Additional information about this program is available at the National Arbitration Forum’s Web site at http://www.arb-forum.com/nj/ .